


Blush

by itsaquinnquinnsituation



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 20:15:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1756051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsaquinnquinnsituation/pseuds/itsaquinnquinnsituation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the Mont Blanc tunnel incident. A hope, a wish, and a prayer...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blush

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction, intended for entertainment purposes only. I do not mean to offend or insult anyone. No characters, real or based off real people, belong to me. I am not making money off my work.
> 
> This is my universe and exactly how I see it. Writing should be enjoyed, not judged.
> 
> My description of the rescue procedures is only a guess and is not meant to be accurate.

"Move!“

She stood frozen, stare glued to their motionless bodies.

“Move!”

“Move! LaFlamme, what the hell?” – He came and jerked her shoulder so hard that she side-stepped and almost fell over, looking at him with wide-open eyes. Then, she just pointed with her body.

“What?” – the man turned to follow her stare, - “So what?? They are gone!” – He turned to her again, and, noticing her expression, lowered his voice, - “They’re gone, Adele, do you see that blush on their cheeks? Carbon monoxide. Classic. You’ll see it on all of them, likely. They’re gone. They’ve been here for hours, it would have been a miracle if they survived. Help me out. We can’t be standing here forever, we got a whole lot more to drag out of here.”

She followed her more-experienced teammate in setting up a stretcher. They picked up the taller one first, and her hands shook as she struggled to untangle him out of the arms of the other one. When they put him on a stretcher, his head turned and his right arm splayed out as if he was inviting somebody to join him. 

“Get another stretcher! Hurry up! Adele!”

But Adele turned to her partner again, blue eyes just as glazed as before, looking right through him, then moved to lean back into the car.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Help me out” – Her voice was raspy and thick.

“I told you to get the stretcher!”

“We’ll put him onto THAT stretcher” – she retorted, gripping the second lad by the arms.

“Which one? The one with the other guy? We can’t… we can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

The officer shrieked, eyes bulging:

“It’s against protocol!”

But the look on Adele’s face, somewhat obscured by her protective equipment, made him shake his head, sigh and also lean in:

“Jesus Christ. Okay. Okay. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. And we don’t got enough stretchers for all of them, anyway.”

They carried the other one out and placed him beside the first lad onto the white sheets. As soon as his body hit the stretcher, the senior rescuer’s attention immediately turned to the next car in line, but the rookie officer Adele LaFlamme continued standing next to the stretcher, frozen. Two young lads who she and her teammate had just dragged out of a dusty old Volvo, laid in peaceful innocence with their hair matted and cheeks flushed. She watched the way the taller lad’s curly hair connected and blended into the other lad’s straight feathery locks. Slowly, she reached out and turned the head of the smaller lad towards that of the taller one, and now, with his face laying on the other lad’s arm and their noses almost touching, they looked like a pair of lovers sleeping in on a Sunday afternoon. Momentarily, Adele’s field of vision became obscured, but she could not even try to wipe off her eyes.

 

 

\---------------------------------

 

A knock on the passenger side car window startled him and he almost shrieked. Through the pixellated grayness outside Louis could make out the face of a young lad, covering his mouth with his palm, blinking furiously and gesturing ferociously in between the knocks. Louis paused for a second, thinking, then leaned over and opened the door. The stranger nearly fell right in, scrambling for the door handle. Then he exploded in coughing. 

Louis just watched him cough for a moment, his face turning red, eyes running with tears, hands gripping at his shirt to the point of nearly ripping it, then said:

“You gotta relax, or you’ll puke out your lungs.”

He wasn’t sure that the stranger even heard him, but he did cease shaking almost immediately, breathed in a few slower breaths, then turned to him, wiping his eyes.

Louis looked.

“I… hope… you… don’t mind” – The lad managed before he burst into a raspy cough again.

“Well” – Louis said matter-of-factly, - “I’m not really sure why you’re here.”

“My… car window…. Doesn't close... All the way....” – The stranger cleared his throat, - “I managed it as long as I could, but… Uh… and you got a big car, I thought maybe we could wait it out…”

Louis chuckled and turned back to look straight ahead:

“That truck seems bigger.”

“The guy wouldn’t let me in.”

 

Louis considered it, eyeing the lad. He had curly hair, plump lips and big eyes and under any other circumstances, Louis would have probably stared and stared at him before putting the most lascivious smile on his face and heading over for a kill. Now he was just fascinated by the tranquil expression on the lad’s ashen face.

“Where were you going?”

“Rome, eventually. Business trip. This time they decided they could save money if they just made me drive. I haven’t slept in two days, haven’t eaten since yesterday.” – He sighed and also looked ahead, -“What’s your name?”

“Does it matter?”

The stranger turned to him, face serious:

“Yeah. No, ultimately, it doesn’t. Or maybe it will, but only for the people who’ll find us. I have my id here in my wallet” – He patted his suit jacket pocket, - “But for these few minutes we are sitting together in the car until we get so delirious we forget who we are, yes, it matters to me.”

“Okay”- Louis swayed back into the window a little, - “Okay, if you want, my name is Louis.”

“Harry” – the stranger said and didn’t offer his hand. 

They sat a few seconds in silence.

“How’s it looking up there?” – Louis asked cautiously, turning to the stranger again.

“Bad. I mean, from what I can see, it’s just a jam. I didn’t see the fire…. I guess it's way up ahead. But the smoke is very heavy and it’s getting worse. It’s getting very hot, too.”

“It won’t last much longer.”

“You mean…”

“No, I don’t mean – they’ll get us out, but I mean…” – He shut up and cleared his throat. They fell in silence.

 

 

“What are you thinking about?”

Harry shrugged:

“Life. You know, not like – the whole life flashing before your eyes, I guess that happens only when you are dying suddenly or something, but I’m just thinking about… what I could have done… what I could have changed… or…”

He looked to Louis, vulnerable and probing. Louis turned away.

“Where were you going?”

“Milan. To party. With this one guy. Or guys. Or… Actually I don’t really know any of them. They contacted me through this website… you wouldn’t know… said, come down…. So I packed my shit and left. And now I’m here.”

“What do you do?”

“I do odd jobs. Wait tables, dee-jay. Mop floors, whatever I get.”

“Well, I’ve been trying to be a business consultant. It’s really tough when you don’t have a degree. I’ve been pushing along since I was done with high school. I’ve been with the same firm for almost ten years. Yeah” – He nodded when Louis turned to him with big eyes, - “Worked my way up from a coffee-making assistant. Now” – he gestured, opening his arms, - “Now I am saving to buy a house, and…” – suddenly, he chuckled, bitterly, - “Was. I WAS saving to buy a house.”

 

Louis nodded and looked ahead. The lights had gone out in the tunnel but it did not surprise him and he turned on his cell phone to provide some light. His car guest did the same. Louis sniffed:

“Get down. The smoke is getting inside.”

They both crouched and sat silently for a few seconds before Louis said:

“No, let’s actually get into the back. I removed the seat to shove the suitcase in there, so, so long we move it up to the front, we can lay on the floor down there. It won’t make much of a difference, but… maybe we won’t be coughing so much…”

Harry turned around immediately and began working on moving the luggage. 

When they were finally done, suitcase and other loose junk now sitting in the front of the car, and the two of them, on the dirty floor in the back of Louis’ spacious Volvo, both were sweating and out of breath and Louis worried that he did more harm than good. But when Harry finally sighed, turning to look at him with his big eyes, his face mere inches away from Louis’, those thoughts were immediately gone from his head.

“What do you want right now?”

“What?”

“I mean…” – Harry coughed, - “I mean if you could have anything… or be anywhere right now, where would you be?”

“Well, definitely not trapped in the car in the tunnel, choking on smoke!” – He watched Harry smile weakly, then continued, - “I don’t know. If you asked me that question tomorrow, when I would have been supposed to be in Milan, partying hard with good-looking hunks, I would have probably told you “In Ibiza, sipping a Sex-on-the-beach.” But I don’t know” – He shook his head, feeling the tears.

“You party a lot?”

“You could say that. I got a lot of grief for being who I am from my family and my community. I’m from a very small catholic town. And so – I don’t know, I figured, life’s too short to deal with that crap. So I tried to live it to the fullest…”

Harry looked on.

“I don’t know” – Louis wiped his eyes, - “I don’t know why I am telling you this or why I am even thinking this right now, but… I look back on it all and I don’t even have anything to remember. It’s all just a drunken fog, bad music, smells of cheap cologne, strange beds, phone numbers, it’s all… a blur, all….messy…”

Harry nodded, looking away:

“Well…It’s the same for me. But different. The past ten years… all I can remember is leaving my apartment before dark and returning after dark. I almost never see daylight, save for out of the window of my office. I live on coffee and bagels because they are free and available. I’ve even spent the night in the office… several times. I work on weekends at least twice a month. Last time I spoke with my mother was almost 5… 6 months ago. It’s all just… a blur….”

“Trying to get something…”

“Or somewhere…”

“But in the end, you have nothing. Look, you and me in the car. And that’s it. You can’t take anything with you.”

“Louis” – Harry swallowed, trying to keep his eyes on the lad, - “I feel faint.”

“That’s normal. That’s hypoxia.”

“I know.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes.”

Louis stretched out his hand and took Harry’s.

“I wish we had more time…” – Harry said, so obviously struggling to keep his eyes open.

“For what?”

“I don’t really know. To be here and talk.”

“To be in the car?”

“Not in the car, I mean… Talk… and… I want to see the sky again. And the trees. And the sun. I just haven’t seen enough colours in my life, you know? Just the white and the grey of the office.”

“Relax… relax, don’t talk so much.”

“No, you don’t get it… I’ve been fighting so hard that I’ve forgotten what’s all I’ve been fighting for. What colour are your eyes?”

“Blue.”

“I can’t even tell.”

“Relax, or you’ll faint sooner than…”

“Than?”

“Sooner than I can handle without going completely insane.”

“You know why I came and knocked on the window of your car? I knew that I was not going to make it out alive, one way or another.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Same reason as why I let you in, though, arguably, I would have had more chances to survive if I conserved all oxygen I have in the car.”

“But?”

“But” – Louis scooted even closer to him so their lips were almost touching. Both were sweating profusely and breathing in slow, laboured breaths, - “But I understood one thing that is much more important. You see, when I realized what was happening... I… thought that this… this here… being stuck on a car floor in a tunnel with a raging fire… about to faint and suffocate to death…was one of the worst ways to die… but it isn’t… now it isn’t… not anymore. Because I am not alone.”

Harry nodded without opening his eyes and Louis felt his hand go limp in his clasp.

“Harry!”

“Mghm?” – Harry motioned with his brows.

“Are you…?”

“I think I might be… Everything is… Fading… uhm… Lou…ee?”

“Yeah?”

“You know…, one of us will have to… to… you know… take the last breath… and… if I could… you know, if I could, I’d give it to…”

“No, shut up. Shut up. Don’t say it. Let me…” 

“What are… you… doing?”

“Here. Open your mouth a little. Like that, yeah. Now if I place my lips on yours, whichever of us takes the last bit of air, will breathe it into the lungs of the other one. Fair?”

“You’re crazy”- Harry murmured, but he did as requested, and it certainly was a kiss at first, both of them putting as much strength in it as they could master, which still meant that it was so light as to be barely there, and then they just left their lips connected as Louis felt Harry relax. It was then, that he finally felt the peace setting over him.

_________________________________

 

Outside of the tunnel, several stretchers stood unattended amongst half-a-dozen ambulance cars and at least two dozen others from various agencies as hundreds of people buzzed to and fro. Paramedics were busy attending to those few survivors who happened to be closer to the exit of the tunnel when the fire broke out, and managed to escape. Sirens blared, photos snapped, people shouted, but from far, far above, all that looked like a petty anthill…

 

 

“Would you do it differently, if you got another chance?”

“Maybe… Would you?”

“You never answered my question. What is one thing that you want… or one place you want to be, more than anything in the world?”

“Does it matter… I mean, anymore?”

“In the end of ends, it’s the only thing that matters.”

“Then I think that you know.”

“So, if you could, would you?”

“Maybe… Would you?”

 

_______________________________

 

Rookie rescue officer Adele LaFlamme, shaking and ashen in the face, was standing by a number of stretchers, waiting to be loaded into the truck cars. These were the ones going straight to the morgue, so they could wait. While other agents and officers were scurrying through the mess, towing cars out of the tunnel, talking on phones, trying to ID the bodies, Adele, exhausted and numb, was feeling lost in the crowd. Her more experienced partner was nowhere to be seen, and nobody was paying her any attention. She longed desperately to see again the two very first bodies that she and her partner found that night, but she was almost afraid of her urge. The uncomfortable look on her teammate’s face when he appreciated the way the two men were laying in the seat-less back of that old grey Volvo had spoken volumes, but for her, going on 24-years old, just-out-of-college, innocent, plain-jane French catholic girl, this was something she felt on a subconscious level, something she could not understand, only admire, only feel with her heart. 

She wanted so much to be sure that they were still on that stretcher, still the way SHE left them, that nobody had dared to dislodge them in the identification process. Cautiously and nervously, she made her way until she found the right stretcher. 

At first, she froze and blinked, then stepped back and felt her world spin, but the way her eyes remained glued to that stretcher, helped her not to lose consciousness. She didn’t believe it at first, so she came closer until she could easily see their faces. They were still uncovered, which didn’t surprise her, but what did was the absence of that blush on their cheeks, which her partner so quickly attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Instead, it were her own cheeks, that had immediately started glowing red. Barely moving with gentle, slow breaths, their bodies were pressed into each other, their hands, which have by now returned to almost completely-natural colour, fingers entwined, were resting just over the waist of the taller lad. And Adele could’ve thought she was only imagining the whole thing with them kissing if just then the smaller lad didn’t make a tiny moaning noise, leaning even more into the other one. 

Adele stepped back, feeling a pre-fainting rush and immediately wanted to scream, to get the paramedics’ attention, to get these two hooked to the monitors right away, to tell her snobby partner, that yes, miracles do happen if you believe... But then she stopped, looked around and thought, no, they’ll have plenty of time to be poked at by doctors, have their pictures taken by news reporters, but just now, she doubted that they wanted to share this moment with anyone else. She didn’t know how or what happened to them before or in the tunnel, but somehow… somehow she knew.

So she turned around briskly and started walking away, leaving them alone, entangled on a narrow stretcher, lost in their own world, far, far away, for just a few more minutes of this new-found hope, before they’d be plunged again into the harsh reality. And it won’t be a perfect happily-ever-after for them, no, no, of course not, because those do not exist, but there are definitely things worth fighting for. And there are miracles, worth believing in.


End file.
